How does a photograph become a news image? An ethnography of the labor behind international news images, this book ruptures the self-evidence of the journalistic photograph by revealing the many ...
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How does a photograph become a news image? An ethnography of the labor behind international news images, this book ruptures the self-evidence of the journalistic photograph by revealing the many factors determining how news audiences are shown people, events, and the world. News images, this book argues, function as formative fictions—fictional insofar as these images are constructed and culturally mediated, and formative because their public presence and circulation have real consequences in the world. Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror and based on fieldwork conducted at photojournalism's centers of power, the book offers an intimate look at an industry in crisis. At the turn of the 21st century, image brokers—the people who manage the distribution and restriction of news images—found the core technologies of their craft, the status of images, and their own professional standing all changing rapidly with the digitalization of the infrastructures of representation. From corporate sales meetings to wire service desks, newsrooms to photography workshops and festivals, the book investigates how news images are produced and how worldviews are reproduced in the process.Less

Image Brokers : Visualizing World News in the Age of Digital Circulation

Zeynep Devrim Gürsel

Published in print: 2016-04-12

How does a photograph become a news image? An ethnography of the labor behind international news images, this book ruptures the self-evidence of the journalistic photograph by revealing the many factors determining how news audiences are shown people, events, and the world. News images, this book argues, function as formative fictions—fictional insofar as these images are constructed and culturally mediated, and formative because their public presence and circulation have real consequences in the world. Set against the backdrop of the War on Terror and based on fieldwork conducted at photojournalism's centers of power, the book offers an intimate look at an industry in crisis. At the turn of the 21st century, image brokers—the people who manage the distribution and restriction of news images—found the core technologies of their craft, the status of images, and their own professional standing all changing rapidly with the digitalization of the infrastructures of representation. From corporate sales meetings to wire service desks, newsrooms to photography workshops and festivals, the book investigates how news images are produced and how worldviews are reproduced in the process.

This chapter traces the history of photographs on the move and the development of an international community whose business it is to broker the images that document the news. There are two important ...
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This chapter traces the history of photographs on the move and the development of an international community whose business it is to broker the images that document the news. There are two important stories here: the well-known one about the rise of photojournalism, and the less-known one about the rise of distribution networks and changes in infrastructures of representation. This history of the business of image brokering focuses specifically on the significant restructuring of the industry as a result of digitalization—most importantly, the rise of the visual content provider. The chapter then analyzes the challenges of news images as a product line.Less

What Precedes the Digital News Image?

Zeynep Devrim Gürsel

Published in print: 2016-04-12

This chapter traces the history of photographs on the move and the development of an international community whose business it is to broker the images that document the news. There are two important stories here: the well-known one about the rise of photojournalism, and the less-known one about the rise of distribution networks and changes in infrastructures of representation. This history of the business of image brokering focuses specifically on the significant restructuring of the industry as a result of digitalization—most importantly, the rise of the visual content provider. The chapter then analyzes the challenges of news images as a product line.

This chapter looks at the news and editorial division of Global Views Inc. (GVI), one of the largest corporate visual content providers, on the brink of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. It follows ...
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This chapter looks at the news and editorial division of Global Views Inc. (GVI), one of the largest corporate visual content providers, on the brink of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. It follows the fast paced work of Jackie, a photo editor at GVI, and other image brokers as they negotiate with photographers and publications. News images represent a mere fraction of the profits generated by selling visual content such as celebrity portraiture and stock photos. GVI produces no journalistic text and is not a news organization; hence this chapter looks at image brokers working to produce and circulate images as content for other professionals.Less

Global Views Inc. : Visualizing Politics, from Shock and Awe to the Fall of Saddam Hussein

Zeynep Devrim Gürsel

Published in print: 2016-04-12

This chapter looks at the news and editorial division of Global Views Inc. (GVI), one of the largest corporate visual content providers, on the brink of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. It follows the fast paced work of Jackie, a photo editor at GVI, and other image brokers as they negotiate with photographers and publications. News images represent a mere fraction of the profits generated by selling visual content such as celebrity portraiture and stock photos. GVI produces no journalistic text and is not a news organization; hence this chapter looks at image brokers working to produce and circulate images as content for other professionals.

Because it is impossible to create an unfiltered mirror to reality, the news media selectively rely on particular pictures and words to shape our understanding of world events. The construction of ...
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Because it is impossible to create an unfiltered mirror to reality, the news media selectively rely on particular pictures and words to shape our understanding of world events. The construction of news is never a random process, and photojournalism is far more than a mechanical undertaking. Because photographs literally craft boundaries, systematically hiding one reality while illuminating another, this book extensively examines how pictures represent tragedy, uncovering surprising editorial forces that persistently structure the way the news media cover death. Some deaths are concealed, while others are illustrated in great detail, and this book develops formulas predicting these fates. We see how deep political cleavages, especially those powered by nationalism, create remarkable patterns of visibility and invisibility. The patterns are striking, but they overturn long-held assumptions about which deaths are newsworthy, raising fundamental questions about the role of news images. This behind-the-scenes account shares many photographs, including images that were censored from the news. It also explores in-depth interviews with industry leaders who admit to self-censorship and industry censorship. It engages impassioned controversies over bearing witness, protecting privacy, and other sensitive topics.Less

Death Makes the News : How the Media Censor and Display the Dead

Jessica M. Fishman

Published in print: 2017-11-12

Because it is impossible to create an unfiltered mirror to reality, the news media selectively rely on particular pictures and words to shape our understanding of world events. The construction of news is never a random process, and photojournalism is far more than a mechanical undertaking. Because photographs literally craft boundaries, systematically hiding one reality while illuminating another, this book extensively examines how pictures represent tragedy, uncovering surprising editorial forces that persistently structure the way the news media cover death. Some deaths are concealed, while others are illustrated in great detail, and this book develops formulas predicting these fates. We see how deep political cleavages, especially those powered by nationalism, create remarkable patterns of visibility and invisibility. The patterns are striking, but they overturn long-held assumptions about which deaths are newsworthy, raising fundamental questions about the role of news images. This behind-the-scenes account shares many photographs, including images that were censored from the news. It also explores in-depth interviews with industry leaders who admit to self-censorship and industry censorship. It engages impassioned controversies over bearing witness, protecting privacy, and other sensitive topics.

This chapter addresses the relationship between imagemaking and worldmaking, or how assumed conflict shapes the production and circulation of news images which then in turn contribute to what ...
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This chapter addresses the relationship between imagemaking and worldmaking, or how assumed conflict shapes the production and circulation of news images which then in turn contribute to what political possibilities seem plausible. Specifically the chapter looks at worldmaking at two sites: the newsroom of a major US news publication and a World Press Photo seminar intended to develop democracy by way of photojournalism. At both sites presumed binaries shape processes of worldmaking frame by frame. Balancing such aesthetic conflict comes to stand in for journalistic objectivity. The professional brokering of news images involves simultaneous processes of producing representations and reproducing worldviews. Understanding these processes is key to understanding global infrastructures of worldmaking with its production of certain categories of people and possibilities for certain kinds of visibility and not others. In the end, better scholarship on how images both represent and produce political conflict may require that we look beyond images of conflict itself.Less

Worldmaking frame by frame

Zeynep Devrim Gürsel

Published in print: 2016-12-24

This chapter addresses the relationship between imagemaking and worldmaking, or how assumed conflict shapes the production and circulation of news images which then in turn contribute to what political possibilities seem plausible. Specifically the chapter looks at worldmaking at two sites: the newsroom of a major US news publication and a World Press Photo seminar intended to develop democracy by way of photojournalism. At both sites presumed binaries shape processes of worldmaking frame by frame. Balancing such aesthetic conflict comes to stand in for journalistic objectivity. The professional brokering of news images involves simultaneous processes of producing representations and reproducing worldviews. Understanding these processes is key to understanding global infrastructures of worldmaking with its production of certain categories of people and possibilities for certain kinds of visibility and not others. In the end, better scholarship on how images both represent and produce political conflict may require that we look beyond images of conflict itself.